November 15, 2008
Report by Harlan Stockman, Photos by Harlan Stockman and Chris Meyer

At 7:10 am on November 15, 2008, seven humans and two dogs met at Silverton Casino in Henderson, with the goal of exploring one of the many Mojave surprises – The New York Mountains. It took us a mere 1.5 hours to caravan down, mostly on good roads, to the “trailhead” at 5300’ in Keystone Canyon. We fumbled around for a few minutes, noting that the temperature was in the 50's, and that the forecast for wind was pretty accurate.

The hike starts easily enough, then throws out successively harder challenges. The first miles are over a decrepit, but mainly pleasant old mine road (sometimes indistinguishable from a stream bed), till the first abandoned copper mine. From there the route becomes a class 2 scramble - first to another mine shaft, then to the saddle. Next one travels over a surprisingly rugged ridge, past the lumpy summit of “New York One,” to the real jewel – the craggy granite summit of New York Two.

View east from the ridge

The summit “block” (and that term doesn’t seem quite right) is just about 150’ higher than the ridgeline, and is probably just 10-15 minutes of climbing. But this is the real fun of the trip, and the prominence is high enough to provide some really good views. If you follow the most direct path, the climbing is tough class 3; the rock is very stable compared to Red Rock, but is disturbingly featureless in places, and is covered with a tough gray-green lichen in some of the steepest stretches. First one climbs a steep chute, and then traverses left to a narrow slot, and then climbs an impossibly steep-looking crack to the very top. The view south to the Providence Mountains is ethereal and rugged, over fantastically sculpted granite.

View SW to the route up the last vertical 150’

We had one slight complication; we had two dogs, Dazey and Banjo, brought by Josh and Kim. Even though Josh’s dog Dazey has conquered the likes of Muddy Peak, we thought the slick granite, with so many deep cracks, might not be to her liking. So we adopted a tag team approach. First Josh accompanied us to the peak top, to witness a strong, cold wind and great views. (Every trip that I’ve taken to this summit was cold and windy; yet at just 7533’, this hike must be Hades in July.) Then we returned to the dogs, Josh took over watch duty, and I showed Kim the route. She was gleeful at a chance to exercise skills that had lain dormant during 2.5 years of motherhood. Chris had waited on top, just to take our picture.

Panorama south from the summit

The descent was fun, even though I’m not usually fond of retracing my steps. By now the wind was dying down, so we actually took some time to eat lunch and enjoy the sun. Then we started again, and marveled with each tricky set of ledges; and the dogs would invariably negotiate each ledge several times, back and forth, at a run. Supposedly, we had to get back to the cars by 3 pm to keep evening appointments; but we were all awash in the lazy warm glow of a pleasant day and a goal attained. We finally descended back into the desert, and drove out over two miles of bumpy roads, then headed back north as the sun sank low in the sky.

Dazey the wonder dog, looking east

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ATTENTION ALL ADVENTURE-SEEKERS Hello all, I am in the preliminary stages of planning a thru hike of the entire Spring Mountain Range from Mountain springs in the south to Mt. Schader or Point of Rocks in the North in the spring of 2010. I am looking for a few friends to share the trip with. Over the next year and a half I plan on hiking as much of the route as I can. I will be going on day hikes and one and two night backpack trips to scout the route. My objectives are as follows: Have fun Be safe Keep the trip as far off the beaten path as is feasible Do it the old fashioned way- No GPS My hope is to have a few committed folks together so we can start planning scouting trips by February ‘09. My thought is that the scouting trips will be open to anyone, but the BIG trip should be no more than six or so. Because I am not yet a leader for the LVMC I would love it if someone who is a leader would sign on, so that I could co-lead a trip and get that out of the way. Even if you are not interested in going on the BIG trip, you can still help organize and come out with us on the scouting trips; we will need to meet up with some folks to re-supply at least twice on the BIG trip, perhaps more. If interested you will need: A sense of humor A positive attitude A high level of fitness Some backpacking experience Some map and compass experience *Ability to levitate over cliff bands and change untreated water to Newcastle a plus! I hope to hear from you! Frank Simpson (the guy with the straw cowboy hat) Mail4franks@earthlink.net

 

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